will you remember me / weep not for the memories

I was in my 38 weeks when I gave birth naturally to my baby boy on 26 November 2012. Prior to this special day, I had anticipated childbirth to be extremely unbearble (okay I cheated, opted for epidural in the end. was unbearable otherwise) and probably drag more than 10hours ++ to pop. Those were the experiences I’ve heard from friends who are mothers. Overall, unpleasant stuff I learnt.

Here in chronological order of what happened on eventful 26-Nov-2012 :

09:00am – Breakfast with parents before OB’s appointment at 9:30am

10:53am – Gleefully announced to friends that I need not be admitted today coz I am not much dilated from last week. (Back to the examination earlier, I was poked twice and then told to do CTG. I never realised those pokes seem to simulate the contraction—>labour. Dilation has progress. I FELT SO CHEATED.)

11:28am – Pelvic area hurting bad. Or so I realised, the real contraction has started. According to Dr. Ang, labour pain supposed “to pain like will die but won’t die.” That’s the pain.

12:05pm (waterbag broke) – OB broke the waterbag in the clinic. Clear, warm liquid oozing that has no scent… and I was dripping all the way from clinic to home, and home to hospital… Was told baby was surrounded by little amniotic fluid and that’s not good. Hence gonna admit into TMC by 2pm. Till this day, still half believe and suspected my labour was triggered on purpose.

1:13pm – Showered at home and ready to go hospital.

2:12pm (3cm dilated) – a staff nurse placed a bottle of Fleet on my table. My heart skipped a beat. Never had something squeeze inside the rectal to jumpstart bowel…. (lucky my bed was next to the toilet. Effectively cleared my bowels within 3min of administration). I recalled the joke with clinic girls about having “Place of Birth” as “toilet” in the birth certificate and took care to poo gently.

04:00pm – Decided to have epidural. Couldn’t tolerate the pain. I salute my mum who had 3 kids and never taken epidural. I asked if I can walk around if I do not want the epidural. Rejected and had to stay bedridden for the next long hours…

05:00pm (8cm dilated) – nurse came to insert urine catheter. Told her I felt very heavy pressure below and asked her to check if baby is crowning. She insisted it is the full bladder and even showed me the urine bag. As I was on low dosage of epidural, I knew this is not pressure from “full bladder”. The nurse finally gave in to check after much persuasion. I was 8cm dilated.

05:24pm – Inside delivery suite. Waiting for Dr. Ang.

05:41pm – Baby boy is born naturally with assisted vacuum. Head got stuck and Dr. had to use vacuum. Still stuck and he looked bothered. Just like the dramatic childbirth scene – I was told to wait for the next contraction and push with all I have. From count of 1 to 10, to count of 1 to 20. All nurses and doctor did the count in order to encourage me to push it out once and for all. I felt like a gas tank. Son delivered safely in 6 hours, 4 pushes within 10minutes.

Hoi !

I prefer to be simply called "Lee". Currrently my 4th year at unisim, 4th year with UVnium. I have different mood (that's normal not just becoz i'm a woman), I love my parrot fishes & I love my toys. I am currently saving hard for a new camera, backpack trips, Mini Cooper, large aqua tank & retirement.